It is known in the art to provide a low-side drive transistor coupled to a load circuit. For example, the low-side drive transistor may comprise an insulated gate bi-polar transistor (IGBT) and the load circuit may comprise a resonant tank circuit. This circuit configuration is illustrated in FIG. 1. The resonant tank circuit may, for example, comprise an inductance and capacitance coupled in parallel. A first terminal of the resonant tank circuit is coupled to a DC supply node. A second terminal of the resonant tank circuit is coupled to a collector terminal of the IGBT. The emitter terminal of the IGBT is coupled to a reference supply node (for example, ground). The gate terminal of the IGBT is driven by a drive signal output from a gate driver circuit. The gate driver circuit may, for example, comprise a totem pole push-pull driver circuit as known in the art. The gate driver circuit is actuated by a pulse width modulation (PWM) control signal generated by a PWM generator circuit.
In a number of applications, the IGBT may be damaged as a result of an over-voltage condition. There is a need in the art to protect the IGBT.